IPMA Perspective Competence Element — Self-Reflection and Self-Management
In my last article on IPMA, I wrote about the fifth competence element, the final element in the Perspective Area, Culture & Values. In this article, I am writing on the first competence element of the People Area: Self-Reflection & Self-Management.
This competence element aims to enable the individual to control and direct his or her behaviour by acknowledging the influence of his or her personal set of emotions, preferences and values.
As a leader that leads the project or programme, one needs to have the ability to be self-aware and enabling others to leverage on you for advice. Unfortunately, it is not easy to have that level of awareness, especially when one is fixated on the project outcomes, and especially during a crisis.
I have gotten myself into that kind of situation and found myself in a downward spiral effect. However, it was not until my GM created that awareness in me and shared the tools to manage the problem that I get out of it.
I am a dedicated worker, and I can get so fixated on the job that I want to finish what I have. The responsible one that you might say. However, I cannot self-reflect and manage myself then, which is not as good as what I can now. While we need to ensure that we get things done, we need to also focus on ourselves as we are the ones executing the task. If we don’t manage ourselves well, how can we manage the job competently?
As we focus on improving our technical skills, we must not lose sight of the soft skills. This CE does not measure our competency in our work area; it measures how we can manage ourselves before we can manage others. We need to know what makes us ticked and motivating ourselves to be efficient in what we are doing and effective in helping others do the same.
How can we pick up on these skills? I read books, interact with people and often asking myself if I can apply what I know. Most importantly, I will self-reflect on those situations that I found myself to be in and asking what’s the real intention and can I do something different the next time.
I am not great at this aspect yet and there are still a lot of areas that I need to work on. However, once we have awareness of this and take small steps to address it, we will get better progressively. It is not that great leap that matters, but being continuously in getting ourselves better that make the most impact.
Execution of this CE depends on the other CEs and cannot happen in a silo. The other CEs include Power & Interest and Culture & Values supporting each other.
Thank you for reading, and I hope it gives you a glimpse into this Self-Reflection & Self-Management CE. In my next article, I will write on the “Personal Integrity & Reliability” competence element.
If you are keen to know more about PMAS, you can check this link out https://pma.sg/ and follow my hashtag to learn more about the CE in IPMA Individual Competence Baseline (ICB) Version 4.0
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